Rekindled: Amazon's eBook Reader comes to Canada

Amazon's Kindle eBook reader went global to 100 countries a month ago but for reasons unexplained, Canada wasn't included in the roll out. Better late than never, it is now.

Nov. 19, 2009

Gadjo C. Sevilla

This week, Amazon finally opened its wireless reading device/service, Kindle, to Canadian consumers.

"Kindle Now Ships to Canada, Choose from over 300,000 of the most popular books, magazines and newspapers," states the plug on Amazon.ca.

Amazon has even thrown Canadians a bone and offers localized content such as subscriptions to the Globe and Mail as well as the National Post that are automatically downloaded to subscriber's Kindle device. The Kindle costs Canadians US $312.00 including shipping and import fees.

"We know that Canadians are passionate about books and reading, and we're excited to make Kindle available to our customers there," said Ian Freed, Vice President of Kindle. "Kindle enables customers around the world including Canada to think of a book and start reading it in under 60 seconds."

The Canadian Kindle is expected to offer a similar experience to its US counterpart in terms of wireless book purchases via Whispernet 3G data or GPRS connections.

However, Canadians won't get the free/unlimited basic web-browsing feature that Americans are enjoying. Canadian Kindle users aren't allowed to browse blogs, either. This may be more of an issue with the yet-unnamed Canadian wireless data partner putting the squeeze on data rather than Amazon willfully shutting out features.

That said, Canadian users do get free access to Wikipedia, which means that the embargo on web browsing and blogs might be temporary as wireless deals are ironed out.

Amazon is striving to stay competitive in an increasingly crowded e-reader market. The Kindle currently has 60 per cent of the U.S. market, according to a Forrester Research report, and Sony has 35 per cent. Barnes & Noble also announced their own Kindle-like device, dubbed the Nook, that promises access to a million titles. Nook is currently limited to US customers.